Jon Marshall, COO of Deep Roots Harvest – Interview Series

So what topics in Business Administration did you primarily focus on while studying at the University of Montana? What topics became the most useful over the course of your career and eventual role with Deep Roots Harvest?

My studies in Business Administration gave me a broad foundation, but the areas that proved most useful over time were finance and accounting basics. Early on, you don’t always realize which lessons are going to stay with you, but understanding the basics of how a healthy business runs was critical. Budgeting, AP/AR, capital planning, spreadsheet modeling have all carried over directly into the work I do today. In a role like COO, you are constantly balancing people, systems, compliance, growth and execution, but at the end of the day, the business has to pencil and make sense financially. That combination of business fundamentals and practical leadership has been one of the most valuable things I took from my education.

It looks like you had quite an exciting career prior to joining the cannabis industry. Why did you want to become a ski patrolman and what interested you about such rigorous yet important work?

After college, I was very reluctant to get a desk job right out of school. I’d always been an outdoorsy guy and I wanted to get a few adventures under my belt before buckling down. What started off as a winter of ski bumming at Alta, UT turned into a 15-year career of ski patrolling, guiding and avalanche forecasting through the western US. Ski patrolling was a combination of physical challenge, public service and working in the mountains, wild adventures, explosives and tragedy and celebration. I have always appreciated environments where you have to stay alert, think clearly and be ready to respond when people are relying on you. Ski patrolling, guiding and forecasting are all very demanding jobs, but they are also deeply rewarding. You are often helping people in a very direct way, often in difficult conditions, and that creates a strong sense of purpose, but you’re also there to help them have their own life adventure and a good time outdoors. I also liked that it required fitness, discipline, teamwork and sound judgment. Those are qualities that have stayed with me throughout every stage of my career.

In an area as northern as Montana, how did you properly detect or forecast when an avalanche or similar storm was forming? How did you do your best to ensure safety from those storms?

Avalanche awareness and mountain safety comes down to a combination of training, curiosity, weather data and experience. You are constantly paying attention to changing conditions such as new snowfall, wind loading, temperature shifts, and overall snowpack stability throughout the season. There is no room for complacency. The goal is to make informed decisions as quickly and as decisively as possible. You don’t have time for all of the information to be perfect. The weather is constantly changing; the risks are always changing. It’s a very dynamic environment with people’s lives as stake. Safety always starts with preparation, communication and respect for the mountain.

What were some of your regular duties during your decade with the US Forest Service? What would you say were some of the most action-packed or otherwise eventful days you had on the job?

I actually worked for the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, for a total of 15 years. I was 100% focused on Wildland Fire suppression during that time. I typically worked 6-9 months a year in fire before heading to the ski areas for the winter.

As a wildland firefighter, I worked a lot of different jobs, a few years on a fire engine, three years as a hotshot, and 10 years as a smokejumper parachuting into more remote fires. I ended up managing all aspects of fire suppression, including aviation resource management and incident command. I really loved the job. You never knew what your week was going to look like or where you would be.

After so many years of being a ski patrolman and a forest firefighter, what caught your professional interest about working in the cannabis industry? What was your experience with cannabis like prior to joining the Deep Roots Harvest team?

It actually started as a temporary leave of absence from the forest service. I was getting pretty burned out of fighting fires, all the travel and risk, and I was honestly pretty frustrated with the bureaucracy of working for a government agency and couldn’t picture myself making a career of it.

A high school and college friend of mine got involved in Colorado, early on, and by 2013 he had a pretty good little business with a few grows, a production and a handful of retail stores. A few of my old high school buddies were working with him. I remember asking him what some of his challenges were, and he basically said it was getting all the different departments working better together and communicating more objectively. I thought, I bet I can help with that.

Both of these challenges were key training concepts in fighting fires and ski patrolling. In both of those environments, you’re constantly working with internal and external resources trying to get people organized, and communicating well is critical to any successful mission. Additionally, cannabis, had strict regulatory and compliance standards, like fire and aviation, or explosives and medical response in patrolling.

I quickly started seeing similarities in cannabis. A highly regulated industry with a ton of compliance risk, complex organizations with a lot of different departments and resources working together in a new environment and growing and scaling quickly, like an emerging wildland or medical incident response.

One of the first things I did with that cannabis company was build organizational charts, process flow diagrams and formalize job descriptions for the company. Who was reporting to who, what were they responsible for, where did that responsibility start and end, what SOP’s were people operating off of, etc. How do we make decisions and processes repeatable and predictable?

What are your regular and some lesser-known duties of serving as COO of Deep Roots Harvest? How do you think serving as COO of a cannabis company differs from that role in other industries?

As COO, my primary responsibility is making sure the business operates effectively across departments and that we are aligned on execution. That includes overseeing systems, processes, staffing, supply chain, compliance and long-term operational planning. A lot of people naturally associate the COO role with big-picture leadership, and that is certainly part of it, but there is also a great deal of day-to-day problem-solving involved. Some of the lesser-known aspects of the role include constantly evaluating workflows, removing bottlenecks, supporting department leaders and making sure we are positioned to scale and absorb growth. I work for the team as much as they work for me. My job is to help them execute their vision for their department and help reduce barriers to that vision, whether it’s finance, resources, coordination, legal, etc.

What makes cannabis different is the level of regulatory complexity and operational scrutiny. In this industry, compliance is not a separate function from operations. It is part of every decision. You also have to move with the market while staying disciplined in an environment that can shift quickly. That makes the COO role especially dynamic.

What have been some of the biggest accomplishments and expansions that you’ve celebrated and/or overseen with Deep Roots Harvest? What’s been the best or your favorite recognition that Deep Roots Harvest and its many product lines have received?

One of the biggest accomplishments has been helping Deep Roots Harvest continue to grow as a homegrown Nevada company while maintaining a strong focus on operations, product quality and customer experience. When I joined Deep Roots, we were a small company with about 50 employees and one location. Today we’re close to 500 employees with 13 different facilities and every year has included some form of growth or expansion. Any growth that strengthens our ability to serve communities across the state is something I view as meaningful because growth only matters when it is sustainable and well executed. I am also proud of the way the team has continued to evolve across retail, cultivation, production and brand development. Our leadership is super passionate about continuous improvement at all levels and everyone wants to contribute and win.

In terms of recognition, the most meaningful kind is when customers, and the market, consistently respond to what we are building. Awards and recognition are always appreciated, but what stands out most to me is when our products, stores and people earn trust and loyalty over time. That kind of recognition reflects the work happening across the entire organization.

As someone who used to work in the Nevada cannabis industry for several years myself, I wanted to ask what advantages you think the Nevada cannabis industry has over neighboring state markets.

Nevada has some unique strengths. Being a limited license state is a big one. It has a more mature adult-use market than many people realize, and operators here have had to become very disciplined, very quickly. Without a ton of licenses, it’s a pretty tight knit community, and it’s a pretty small world. We work really closely with a lot of other retailers and wholesalers. The market here also benefits from strong brand awareness, a culture of hospitality, and a customer base that includes both locals and visitors. That creates opportunities around retail experience, product innovation and education that are distinct from some neighboring markets. Nevada operators have also learned how to compete in an environment that is both highly visible and highly regulated. That combination has helped shape a market that is resilient, sophisticated and well-positioned to continue evolving.

How have you observed the nearly 8 percent drop in overall tourism to Las Vegas impacting the overall cannabis industry in Las Vegas? How does Deep Roots Harvest plan on rolling with whatever other disadvantages that the conditions of Las Vegas may indirectly throw its way?

Any time tourism softens in Las Vegas, it has a ripple effect across multiple industries, and cannabis is no exception. Fewer visitors can mean changes in transaction volume, buying patterns and consumer traffic, particularly in areas that depend more heavily on tourism-driven demand. There is just less disposable income in the community than there is when tourism is thriving. That said, one of the keys to navigating that environment is not being overly dependent on any single customer segment. Have something for everyone. For us, that means continuing to focus on operational discipline, strong local relationships, product quality and selection, customer loyalty and a retail experience that keeps people coming back. We also have a strong company culture focused on the locals and strive to make each neighborhood we operate in better. Market conditions will always shift, whether due to tourism, competition or broader economic pressure, so the goal is to remain agile, efficient and focused on long-term fundamentals.

What are some exciting future plans for Deep Roots Harvest? With the recent federal rescheduling, how do you think that major decision will impact Deep Roots Harvest?

The exciting part of Deep Roots Harvest’s future is the continued opportunity to grow thoughtfully, strengthen our operations and keep building on the foundation we have established in Nevada. That includes enhancing the customer experience, investing in our brands and product offerings and services, while continuing to look for smart ways to improve efficiency and execution across the company. We are always focused on how to better serve our customers while positioning the business for long-term success.

As for federal rescheduling, any move toward broader legitimacy is significant for the industry. It has the potential to improve business conditions in meaningful ways, whether through taxation, capital access, operational flexibility or the broader perception of the industry. At the same time, meaningful change takes time, so the most important thing is to stay focused on what we can control. For companies like Deep Roots Harvest, it creates optimism, but it also reinforces the importance of being prepared for the next phase of the industry’s evolution.

Thank you for joining us, Jon! For more information on Deep Roots Harvest, please visit its website.